Disappointing

Do not skip the TW/CW in the author’s note.

While the smut was somewhat enjoyable, I was taken out of the story by the pace in which everything happens at. It felt like I missed everything while being present for everything. And I wasn’t able to fully enjoy this.

In short, the story felt incomplete and rushed. The plot was all over the place. There were so many traumatic things brought into the story (Isla’s parents and abusive childhood but also that of her siblings, the alluded multiple abusive relationships, Bryce’s own abusive childhood) that I felt were more for shock value than to fully explain why these characters were the way they were. Why? The timeline of events, it’s like someone hit the fast forward button on x4. It felt like there was no time for me, the reader, to acclimate and feel something for these characters.

What is the genre? Is it a dark erotica or a dark romance? I also feel like if the genre had been more clear for me maybe I’d been able to enjoy it more? Maybe not. Maybe I could just boil all of this down to, “this wasn’t for me” but I should have been the target audience, I love Dark Romance, I enjoy Dark Erotica. Something about this story though just…ick